“It's 0700 here on the Big X on Monday morning,” reported Excel skipper Justin Fleck April 19, “and everyone is enjoying a nice breakfast in grease calm weather. That's not a misprint; it is the nicest weather I've ever seen here. Zero wind, zero swell! The wahoo finally backed off this weekend and we had some excellent tuna fishing. The kites definitely had the lion’s share of the bites but the Yumee Flyer was kickin' butt as well.

“Big fish honors go to Ralph Mikkelsen and George Meigs with a pair of 215-pounders. Auggie Roberts also boated a cow tuna at 210 pounds, and there were lots of fish in the 170 to 190-pound range. All three of the cows were caught on the kite. We have three more days of fishing left here and we just fired up our final fish hold. If fishing remains anywhere near the same pace, we are going to have to be selective on what gets brought aboard and what gets released.”